A.Word.A.Day Archives from https://wordsmith.org/awad -------- Date: Thu Jun 1 00:01:13 EDT 2006 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--emeritus X-Bonus: Were we to choose our leaders on the basis of their reading experience and not their political programs, there would be much less grief on earth. I believe ... that for someone who has read a lot of Dickens to shoot his like in the name of an idea is harder than for someone who has read no Dickens. -Joseph Brodsky, poet, Nobel laureate (1940-1996) This week's theme: adjectives used postpositively. emeritus (i-MER-i-tuhs) adjective, plural emeriti; feminine emerita, plural emeritae Retired but retaining an honorary title. [From Latin emeritus (one who has served his time), past participle of emerere (to serve out one's term), from merere (to deserve, serve, earn).] -Anu Garg (garg AT wordsmith.org) "Seeger has been singing out like this since the Great Depression. The earnest troubadour who either co-wrote or popularized canonical songs like 'If I Had a Hammer' and 'John Henry' has become something like America's folkie emeritus." Michael Hill; Pete Seeger Still Singing at 87; Associated Press; May 17, 2006. -------- Date: Fri Jun 2 00:01:17 EDT 2006 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--regnant X-Bonus: Sit down and put down everything that comes into your head and then you're a writer. But an author is one who can judge his own stuff's worth, without pity, and destroy most of it. -Colette, author (1873-1954) This week's theme: adjectives used postpositively. regnant (REG-nuhnt) adjective 1. Ruling (reigning, as opposed to simply having the title by marriage). 2. Predominant; widespread. [From Latin regnare (to reign). Ultimately from Indo-European reg- (to move in a straight line, to lead or rule) that's also the source of regime, direct, rectangle, erect, rectum, alert, source, and surge.] -Anu Garg (garg AT wordsmith.org) "Aylmer saw a queen regnant as two persons, one private and one public." Julia M Walker; Dissing Elizabeth; Duke University Press; 2004. -------- Date: Mon Jun 5 00:01:20 EDT 2006 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--internationalization X-Bonus: We shall succeed only so far as we continue that most distasteful of all activity, the intolerable labor of thought. -Learned Hand, jurist (1872-1961) A question I often hear (or read) is: "What is the longest word in the English Language?" My answer: "Depends." No, "depends" isn't the longest word in the English language. Rather, the answer depends on a lot of things. First, what's a word? For example, do names of chemicals -- thousands of letters long -- count? A better question might be: "What's the longest word in any English language dictionary?" We'll see the answer to that at the end of this week. Meanwhile, here are a few other shorter words, relatively speaking. Even though most of the time the only purpose they serve is to be cited as examples of long words, they have genuine usage. For example, today's word is widely used in software and business. Most of the longest words in English are names of chemical compounds, names of diseases or technical words, and not very interesting to remember or talk about. This week, we'll feature five long words that are fun to write and recite. internationalization (in-tuhr-NASH-uh-nuh-ly-ZAY-shun) noun 1. The act or process of making something international or placing it under international control. 2. Making a product or process suitable for use around the globe. This 20-letter word is often abbreviated as i18n when used by software engineers. Making a program useful in another country requires more than just replacing error messages from a new language. In software development, internationalization means designing a program so that it can be easily customized for various languages, scripts, units, currencies, and date/time formats. The counterpart of i18n is localization (l10n) which is adapting a program for use in a particular locale. In other words, internationalization makes a piece of software easy to localize. -Anu Garg (garg AT wordsmith.org) "Japan is no exception in seeing a rise in nationalism in reaction to growing pressures from internationalization." Yoshibumi Wakamiya; Seeking New Strategies; The Asahi Shimbun (Tokyo, Japan); Apr 27, 2006. -------- Date: Tue Jun 6 00:01:14 EDT 2006 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--honorificabilitudinity X-Bonus: The trouble with this country is that there are too many politicians who believe, with a conviction based on experience, that you can fool all of the people all of the time. -Franklin P. Adams, columnist (1881-1960) This week's theme: long words. honorificabilitudinity (ON-uh-rif-i-kay-bi-li-too-DIN-i-tee, -tyoo-) noun Honorableness. [From Medieval Latin honorificabilitudinitas, from Latin honor.] Another form of this, honorificabilitudinitatibus (27 letters), is the longest word Shakespeare ever used. It comes out of the mouth of Costard, the clown, in Love's Labour's Lost: "I marvel thy master hath not eaten thee for a word; for thou art not so long by the head as honorificabilitudinitatibus: thou art easier swallowed than a flap-dragon." Note that its spelling alternates consonants and vowels. Some have used an anagram of this word to claim that Francis Bacon was the author of the works attributed to the Bard. Honorificabilitudinitatibus anagrams to the Latin "Hi ludi F. Baconis nati tuiti orbi." which means "These plays, F. Bacon's offspring, are preserved for the world." Of course, that doesn't prove anything -- the word had been used by other writers earlier. And if you torture words enough, they confess to anything. Have fun with anagrams at https://wordsmith.org/anagram -Anu Garg (garg AT wordsmith.org) "Honorificabilitudinity and the requirements of Scrabble fans dictated that the New Shorter [Oxford English Dictionary]'s makers be open-minded enough to include dweeb (a boringly conventional person), droob (an unprepossessing or contemptible person, esp. a man) and droog (a member of a gang: a young ruffian)." Jennifer Fisher; Droobs and Dweebs; U.S. News & World Report (Washington, DC); Oct 11, 1993. -------- Date: Wed Jun 7 00:01:35 EDT 2006 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--antidisestablishmentarianism X-Bonus: If my decomposing carcass helps nourish the roots of a juniper tree or the wings of a vulture - that is immortality enough for me. -Edward Abbey, naturalist and author (1927-1989) This week's theme: loong words. antidisestablishmentarianism, noun (an-tee-dis-eh-stab-lish-men-TAIR-ee-uh-niz-em) Opposition to separation of the church and state. [From Latin anti- (against) + dis- (apart, away) + English establish, from Latin stabilire, from stare (to stand) + -arian (one who supports) + Greek -ism (practice or state).] At 28 letters, it's the best-known example of a long word. Here's how you can parse the word: one of the meanings of the word establishment is making a church an institution of the state. In the late 19th century England, there was a movement for the separation of the church and state: disestablishment. Those opposed to the idea of separation were antidisestablishmentarians. You can see where it's going. Why not a contraantidisestablishmentarianism? -Anu Garg (garg AT wordsmith.org) "As we said yesterday, the case for antidisestablishmentarianism has never been more threadbare. And if the case for the sovereign as head of a meaningful faith has gone, then the case for the sovereign has changed too." Royal Wedding: Crowning Nonsense; The Guardian (London, UK); Apr 9, 2005. -------- Date: Thu Jun 8 00:01:13 EDT 2006 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--floccinaucinihilipilification X-Bonus: Civilizations in decline are consistently characterised by a tendency towards standardization and uniformity. -Arnold Toynbee, historian (1889-1975) This week's theme: looong words. floccinaucinihilipilification (FLOK-si-NO-si-NY-HIL-i-PIL-i-fi-KAY-shuhn) noun Estimating something as worthless. [From Latin flocci, from floccus (tuft of wool) + nauci, from naucum (a trifling thing) + nihili, from Latin nihil (nothing) + pili, from pilus (a hair, trifle) + -fication (making).] This word was coined by combining four Latin terms flocci, nauci, nihili, pili, all meaning something of little or no value, which were listed in the well-known "Eton Latin Grammar" of Eton College in the UK. The Oxford English Dictionary shows the first use of the word by William Shetstone in 1777: "I loved him for nothing so much as his flocci-nauci-nihili-pili-fication of money." The word seems to be popular in the US government. It has been heard from the mouths of White House Press Secretary Mike McCurry, Senator Robert Byrd, and Senator Jesse Helms among others. Maybe that tells us something about the US Congress's interest in the floccinaucinihilipilification of taxpayers' money. -Anu Garg (garg AT wordsmith.org) "A number of you have phoned me saying that the BBC has plumbed the depths of nationalist floccinaucinihilipilification by simply making up the daftest imaginable Scottish name for the chairman of the Gigha community land steering commission - they haven't. I've checked. He really is called Willie MacSporran." Giles Coren; Willie MacSporran; The Times (London, UK); Oct 31, 2001. -------- Date: Fri Jun 9 00:01:15 EDT 2006 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis X-Bonus: You will find relief from vain fancies if you do every act in life as though it were your last. -Marcus Aurelius, philosopher and writer, emperor of Rome (121-180) This week's theme: loooong words. pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis, noun (NOO-muh-noh-UL-truh-MY-kruh-SKOP-ik-SIL-i-koh-vol-KAY-no-KOH-nee-O-sis, nyoo-) A lung disease caused by inhaling fine particles of silica. [From New Latin, from Greek pneumono- (lung) + Latin ultra- (beyond, extremely) + Greek micro- (small) + -scopic (looking) + Latin silico (like sand) + volcano + Greek konis (dust) + -osis (condition).] Even though we have included the pronunciation of this word, we advise caution lest you may have to avail the services of an otorhinolaryngologist (ear, nose, and throat specialist). At 45 letters, it's the longest word in any English language dictionary. It's a trophy word -- its only job is to serve as the longest word. In day-to-day use, its nine-letter synonym "silicosis" works just as well. Whatever you call it, it is deadly. Here's the story of an incident: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawk's_Nest_incident And what's the shortest word in the English language? There are a number of them: A, I, O, but we'll have to give it to I which is the skinniest as well. -Anu Garg (garg AT wordsmith.org) "This time the messages were longer and nastier. 'What on earth is the matter with you? Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis?'" Marion Thomas; Mystery Writer; Curriculum Corporation; 1998. -------- Date: Mon Jun 12 00:01:17 EDT 2006 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--erythrophobia X-Bonus: My sole inspiration is a telephone call from a director. -Cole Porter, composer and songwriter (1893-1964) Fear and Desire. That sounds like the name of some nineteenth-century novel. Instead, it's the theme for this week's words in A.Word.A.Day. Pick up just about anything under the sun and, if you look long enough, you'll find someone who dreads it. On the other hand, there's also bound to be a person who's crazy about it. No wonder in English there's a word for almost every imaginable phobia and mania. There is one phobia, however, that doesn't apply to the linguaphiles here ... logophobia (fear of words). erythrophobia (i-rith-ruh-FO-bee-uh) noun 1. Hypersensitivity to the color red. 2. An extreme fear of blushing. [From Greek erythros (red) + phobia (fear).] Red screams danger or at the very least inconvenience and annoyance. It's no wonder we do our best to avoid it. Red ink is a sign of trouble in business. Red light stops us in our tracks. Who wants to be caught red-handed? -Anu Garg (garg AT wordsmith.org) "Some people blush 20 to 30 times a day. Some blush just thinking about blushing. Some experience such a rush of blood to the face their eyes get bloodshot. ... People with erythrophobia can blush just getting a haircut." Sharon Kirkey; Canadians head to U.S. for Treatment to Reduce Blushing: Vancouver Sun (Canada); Aug 21, 2004. -------- Date: Tue Jun 13 00:01:24 EDT 2006 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--nostomania X-Bonus: A half-truth is a whole lie. -Yiddish proverb This week's theme: fear and desire. nostomania (nos-tuh-MAY-nee-uh, -mayn-yuh) noun An overwhelming desire to return home or to go back to familiar places. [From Greek nostos (a return home) + -mania (excessive enthusiasm or madness).] You can consider nostomania to be an extreme form of nostalgia (literally, pain for home). For school kids, receiving a bad report card might induce nostophobia. A synonym for geriatrics is nostology. -Anu Garg (garg AT wordsmith.org) "Out of ignorance or out of nostomania for a Norman Rockwell vision of the American family, the public sector has retreated from day care." Andrew Ward; Child-care Centers Can Fulfill Mission; The New York Times; Jul 13, 1986. -------- Date: Wed Jun 14 00:01:13 EDT 2006 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--gynophobia X-Bonus: One of the most time-consuming things is to have an enemy. -E.B. White, writer (1899-1985) This week's theme: fear and desire. gynophobia or gynephobia (gyn-uh-FO-bee-uh, jyn-) noun The fear of women. [From Greek gyne (female, woman) + -phobia (fear).] -Anu Garg (garg AT wordsmith.org) "Precluding women from such positions of leadership is not theologically substantiated, but a clear manifestation of misogyny and gynophobia." Kudakwashe Chirambwi; Church Should Welcome Women Into Leadership; The Herald (Harare, Zimbabwe); Nov 5, 2004. -------- Date: Thu Jun 15 00:01:24 EDT 2006 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--theomania X-Bonus: Not ignorance, but ignorance of ignorance, is the death of knowledge. -Alfred North Whitehead, mathematician and philosopher (1861-1947) This week's theme: fear and desire. theomania (thee-o-MAY-nee-uh, -MAIN-yuh) noun The belief that one is God or specially chosen by God on a mission. [From Greek theos (god) + -mania (excessive enthusiasm or craze).] This mania often strikes rulers of nations and is highly recommended when planning to attack other nations. It soothes conscience, clears the path, and removes all doubts. After all, if one is channeling God, why worry about rules and conventions of mere humans? -Anu Garg (garg AT wordsmith.org) "[Chaitanya] was totally given to theomania, which caused Him to chant and dance in ecstasy." Steven J. Rosen; The Hidden Glory of India; Bhaktivedanta Book Trust; 2002. -------- Date: Fri Jun 16 00:01:28 EDT 2006 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--nosophobia X-Bonus: One of the best ways to get yourself a reputation as a dangerous citizen these days is to go about repeating the very phrases which our founding fathers used in the great struggle for independence. -Charles A. Beard, historian (1874-1948) This week's theme: fear and desire. nosophobia (nos-uh-FO-bee-uh) noun An irrational fear of contracting diseases. [From Greek nosos (disease) + -phobia (fear).] A few related words are nosology (the branch of medical science dealing with classification of diseases) and nosocomial (hospital-acquired, as an infection). The word nostrum is unrelated -- it comes from Latin nostrum (ours), from the practice of peddlers calling the drug "our" drug. -Anu Garg (garg AT wordsmith.org) "By mid-March, one could almost palpate the national nosophobia, perhaps best illustrated by the wire service report of a New York mother who, hearing on the news one morning last week that apples cause cancer, called the state police to intercept her child's school bus to remove the allegedly offensive fruit from the lunch box." Elizabeth M. Whelan; A Morbid Fear of Illness Makes America Trash Good Food and Common Sense; The Los Angeles Times; Mar 20, 1989. -------- Date: Mon Jun 19 00:01:45 EDT 2006 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--chapman X-Bonus: It is not bigotry to be certain we are right; but it is bigotry to be unable to imagine how we might possibly have gone wrong. -G.K. Chesterton, essayist and novelist (1874-1936) If you read a list of professions from earlier times, it reads like a roster of surnames. That's because people were strongly identified by what they did for a living (as opposed to now, when we pay attention to what's on their iPod). John Smith was a person named John who worked as a blacksmith; Bill Sawyer was one who sawed logs, and so on. In India, in the Parsee community, you'll find people with surnames such as Contractor, Doctor, Engineer, etc. While the meanings of many surnames, like Smith, Baker, and Butler, are obvious, there are many others whose origins are not as well-known. This week we pick five professions of yesteryears that now exist mostly as last names. chapman (CHAP-man) noun A peddler; a merchant. [From Old English ceapman, from ceap (trade, bargain), from Latin caupo (shopkeeper or innkeeper) + man. The German equivalent is Kaufmann, Dutch koopman.] -Anu Garg (garg AT wordsmith.org) "Chapmen, for example, circulated around the country on more or less regular routes." Adrian Johns; The Nature of the Book; University of Chicago Press; 1998. -------- Date: Tue Jun 20 00:01:16 EDT 2006 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--baxter X-Bonus: Everyone confesses that exertion which brings out all the powers of body and mind is the best thing for us; but most people do all they can to get rid of it, and as a general rule nobody does much more than circumstances drive them to do. -Harriet Beecher Stowe, abolitionist and novelist (1811-1896) This week's theme: professions that exist mainly as surnames. baxter (BAK-stuhr) noun A baker, especially a female baker. [From Old English baecestre, feminine of baecere, from bacan (to bake).] Other names for bakers have been backster, backmann, becker, furner (literally, one who is in charge of an oven), and pistor (literally, one who pounded the grain: a miller or a baker). -Anu Garg (garg AT wordsmith.org) "Than all the baxters will I ban That mixes bread with dust and bran." David Lyndsay; Ane Satyre of the Thrie Estaitis; 16th c. -------- Date: Wed Jun 21 00:01:16 EDT 2006 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--mercer X-Bonus: The difference between false memories and true ones is the same as for jewels: it is always the false ones that look the most real, the most brilliant. -Salvador Dali, painter (1904-1989) This week's theme: professions that exist mainly as surnames. mercer (MUR-suhr) noun A dealer in textiles, especially silk and other fine materials. [From Old French mercier (trader), from Latin merx (goods). Words such as market, merchant, commerce, and mercantile share the same origin.] Then there is mercerization. To mercerize is to treat cotton thread or fabric with caustic soda to enhance its strength and luster, and to increase its affinity for dyes. The word is an eponym, coined after the calico printer John Mercer (1791-1866) who patented it in 1850. And calico -- a kind of cotton cloth printed with a pattern -- is a toponym, coined after the city of Calicut in India. The city is now known as Kozhikode. -Anu Garg (garg AT wordsmith.org) "The success of the mercers was symbolised by the ambience and animation of their shops." Daniel Roche; The Culture of Clothing; Cambridge University Press; 1996. -------- Date: Thu Jun 22 00:01:19 EDT 2006 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--lorimer X-Bonus: By the age of six the average child will have completed the basic American education. ... From television, the child will have learned how to pick a lock, commit a fairly elaborate bank holdup, prevent wetness all day long, get the laundry twice as white, and kill people with a variety of sophisticated armaments. -Russell Baker, columnist and author (1925- ) This week's theme: professions that exist mainly as surnames. lorimer (LOR-i-muhr), also loriner, noun A maker of bits, spurs and other small metal accessories for horses. [From Old French loremier, from Latin lorum (strap).] -Anu Garg (garg AT wordsmith.org) "The metal parts of saddles and bridles were made by the wealthy craft of lorimers." Abbott Payson Usher; An Introduction to the Industrial History of England; Houghton Mifflin; 1920. -------- Date: Fri Jun 23 00:01:20 EDT 2006 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--sutler X-Bonus: If any kid ever realized what was involved in factory farming they would never touch meat again. I was so moved by the intelligence, sense of fun and personalities of the animals I worked with on 'Babe' that by the end of the film I was a vegetarian. -James Cromwell, actor (1940- ) This week's theme: professions that exist mainly as surnames. sutler (SUT-luhr) noun A merchant who follows an army to sell provisions to the soldiers. [From obsolete Dutch soeteler, from soetelen (to do menial work).] -Anu Garg (garg AT wordsmith.org) "There might have been a sutler or trader in the village who did business with the fort." Julie E. Greene; Fort Frederick Celebrates 250th Anniversary; Hagerstown Morning Herald (Maryland); May 25, 2006. -------- Date: Mon Jun 26 00:01:27 EDT 2006 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--calced X-Bonus: It's hard to be religious when certain people are never incinerated by bolts of lightning. -Bill Watterson, comic strip artist (1958- ), in his comic strip Calvin & Hobbes They're lowest on the totem pole of human accouterments, yet their importance is shown in the numerous metaphors with which they enrich the language. We're talking about shoes. We're told to walk in others' shoes before criticizing them. After all, there's no better way to find where the shoe pinches. Sometimes we have to do our best in filling someone's shoes. At times, we wait for the other shoe to drop. This last one has an interesting story behind it. An inn dweller is dead tired when he returns to his room late at night. As he begins to undress, he removes a shoe and drops it on the floor. Realizing that the big thud must have woken up the fellow in the room below, he takes off the other shoe and puts it down gently. After a considerable time a voice screams from the room under him, "For God's sake, drop the other shoe! I want to go back to sleep." You don't need to wait for any shoes to drop here. Every day this week we'll bring you a word related to those humble accessories that truly carry us around. calced (kalst) adjective Wearing shoes. [From Latin calceus (shoe).] The word calced is usually encountered in the names of certain religious orders, calced Carmelites, for example, who are allowed to wear shoes, as opposed to those who aren't: the discalced. The word calzone for the turnover made of pizza dough is derived (via Italian) from the same Latin root calceus (shoe). -Anu Garg (garg AT wordsmith.org) "While also following a routine of prayer and meditation, nuns in calced orders usually enjoyed a far more comfortable life." Susan Migden Socolow; The Women of Colonial Latin America; Cambridge University Press; 2000. -------- Date: Tue Jun 27 00:01:17 EDT 2006 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--slipshod X-Bonus: Our incomes are like our shoes; if too small, they gall and pinch us; but if too large, they cause us to stumble and to trip. -John Locke, philosopher (1632-1704) This week's theme: words related to shoes. slipshod (SLIP-shod) adjective 1. Careless; sloppy; shabby. 2. Wearing loose shoes or slippers, especially those worn down at the heel. [From slip (slide) + shod (wearing shoes), past and past participle of shoe.] The literal sense of this word (worn at the heel), now considered archaic, gave rise to the figurative sense (careless). The poet William Cowper used it in its original sense when he wrote these words in his 1781 poem entitled Truth: "The shivering urchin, bending as he goes, With slipshod heels ..." -Anu Garg (garg AT wordsmith.org) "In the lawsuit, the government stands accused of slipshod land surveys, an exaggerated advertising campaign and breaking promises." Yu Yoshitake; Broken Promises; Asahi Shimbun (Tokyo, Japan); Jun 7, 2006. -------- Date: Wed Jun 28 00:01:27 EDT 2006 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--gumshoe X-Bonus: For God's sake don't say yes until I've finished talking. -Darryl F. Zanuck, movie producer, director, and actor (1902-1979) This week's theme: words related to shoes. gumshoe (GUM-shoo) noun 1. A detective. 2. A rubber overshoe. [The word is an allusion to the quiet snooping that a detective is supposed to do. Wearing rubber shoes, one can move around without making much noise.] The word is an example of the figure of speech called metonymy in which a part is used for the whole or vice versa. Another example is the use of the word crown to refer to a king. -Anu Garg (garg AT wordsmith.org) "So far, the entertainment industry's approach to peer-to-peer file sharing has been to hire gumshoes to bang on teenagers' doors at midnight and haul them off to court -- an act akin to trying to beat back a tsunami with a tennis racquet." Staunching a Tide of Piracy; Sydney Morning Herald (Australia); May 18, 2006. -------- Date: Thu Jun 29 00:01:18 EDT 2006 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--cordwainer X-Bonus: A myth is a fixed way of looking at the world which cannot be destroyed because, looked at through the myth, all evidence supports the myth. -Edward De Bono, consultant, writer, and speaker (1933- ) This week's theme: words related to shoes. cordwainer (KORD-way-nuhr) noun A shoemaker. [From Old French cordewan, from Spanish cordobán (from Cordoba).] Originally, a cordwainer was a shoemaker who worked with cordwain (or cordovan), a supple leather made from goatskin. The leather was named after Cordoba, a city in south Spain famed for this soft leather. The term mostly survives as a surname, and also in the fancy names of the various guilds of shoemakers, e.g. The Worshipful Company of Cordwainers http://www.cordwainers.org The Honourable Cordwainers' Company http://www.thehcc.org -Anu Garg (garg AT wordsmith.org) "Luke Pollock, a cordwainer, is the owner of The English Leather Shop in Horton." Ann Marie Bush; Horton Store Buys, Sells Goods; Topeka Capital-Journal (Kansas); Sep 24, 2004. -------- Date: Fri Jun 30 00:01:20 EDT 2006 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--goody two-shoes X-Bonus: Count no day lost in which you waited your turn, took only your share and sought advantage over no one. -Robert Brault, software developer, writer (1938- ) This week's theme: words related to shoes. goody two-shoes (GOOD-ee TOO-shooz) noun A smugly virtuous person. [After the title character in The History of Little Goody Two-Shoes, a children's book believed to have been written by Oliver Goldsmith.] In this moralistic nursery tale, Margery is an orphan who has only one shoe. One day, when she gets the full pair, she runs about shouting, "Two shoes!" Eventually she becomes rich and educated through her virtue and hard work. The word goody was a polite term of address for a woman of humble social status. It's a contraction of the word goodwife and was formerly used as a title in a manner similar to the current Mrs. -Anu Garg (garg AT wordsmith.org) "Before anybody else, Falk realized this: 'In the age of TV sports, if you were to create a media athlete and star for the '90s -- spectacular talent, midsized, well-spoken, attractive, accessible, old-time values, wholesome, clean, natural, not too Goody Two-shoes, with a little bit of deviltry in him -- you'd invent Michael." Curry Kirkpatrick; In an Orbit All His; Sports Illustrated; Nov 9, 1987.